Harrison Ford may or may not think his 'Blade Runner 2049' co-star's name is Ryan Gooseling

Harrison Ford laughed at the question of whether he had a hand in selecting Ryan Gosling to be the new lead replicant hunter in Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to Ford’s 1982 sci-fi classic. We’re not sure what prompted the chuckles, exactly. Maybe Ford was just in a jolly good mood, given the rapturous early response to the film, in which he reprises his role as Rick Deckard.

Or maybe he was just getting ahead of his story. “I read the treatment that [executive producer] Ridley [Scott] and [co-writer] Hampton Fancher wrote as a kind of foundational exercise for the script,” said Ford, who was involved in the project as early as, if not earlier than, director Denis Villeneuve. “And when I got the script, I called up the producers with great passion, and I said, ‘We gotta get this guy, uh, um…’”

That’s when Gosling, who joined his co-star at the film’s Los Angeles press day (watch interview above), had to fill in the blank: “Ryan.”

The 75-year-old Ford interrupted his story to straighten it out. “Gooseling?” he asked his younger cohort.

“That’s a funny name,” Ford countered, before picking up his story where he’d left off. “‘We gotta get this guy, whatever his name is, for this part. He would be fantastic.’ And they said, ‘You’re late. We’ve been talking to him for months.’ He was in preproduction before I was.”

Gosling took the opportunity to further drive home the correct pronunciation of his surname to the Star Wars and Indiana Jones icon alongside him. “It’s Gosling,” he told Ford. “The ‘Goose’ thing is not preferred.”